This Christmas, we’re serving up holiday platters for the many moods and sonic flavors of the season. We get down to some very merry Chicano rockabilly from Los Straitjackets; gather around the fire with French fiddlers in snowy Maine; imbibe “Sugar Rum Cherry” concocted by Duke Ellington; dream of a white Christmas a laBooker T. & the MGs, and hear the tale of Miles Davis‘ “Blue X-mas” from jazz composer Bob Dorough. Plus, cool Yuletide exotica from Esquivel, joyous free jazz from Rahsaan Roland Kirk and ring shouting for a New Year from the Georgia Sea Island Singers.

NAME THAT TUNE

October 23rd, 2002

We’ll name some names with songs about “Corina” and “Mona Lisa” from artists like Bo Diddley and Fats Waller. Our guest is a 22-year-old blueswoman who’s out to make a name for herself, Shemekia Copeland. Chuck Berry’s pianist Johnnie Johnson will take us behind the scenes for the making of their first hit “Maybellene.” And we’ll step up to the bar to meet a Baltimore man who legally changed his name to American Joe. Plus the legend of outlaw Staggerlee.